Free Web Sites & Templates

FREE Web Sites: How To

Eliminate the Costs. Remember, there are three primary costs to a web site: Domain • Hosting • Site Design (see my Cost Page for more details). If you want an absolutely free site, here are some ideas to eliminate all three.

Use a Blog

Use a Blogger or Wordpress blog. Both are totally free. There are tons of templates (free or paid) that you can use to maniuplate your blog and make it look more like a web site and less like a blog. You can buy a domain name and attach it to your site or run it with your site title: i.e. "http://bigshotwebdesigns.blogspot.com". Here are two organizations that have used this approach successfully:

Free Site Creators & Hosting

Here are options where you can get a professional looking site for free: Google Sites, Weebly and Drupal Gardens. A Google search will show you there are many more. But the one I recommend:

This is a great place to easily make a professional looking free Flash web site quickly.Wix.com.

Each have their limitations but if your budget has limitations too, these are easy to use, have a variety of templates and sites can be customized. You can have something very professional looking.

Domains

If you absolutely must have a custom domain, I don't know how to get you a free one. Many places offer a "free" domain if you purchase hosting, but that really isn't free is it? You could just go ahead and run your site without a custom domain. Domains are cheap; however, so buy one and use it with these options on this page.

More than Free, Get Paid For Your Site

How would you like to have your site paid for and have a little money left over? This is for the truly adventurous and requires some upfront cash.

You could become a Web Host Reseller. For about $30 a month you could get 100 GB of server space and 1000 GB of bandwidth. Divide it by 10, give yourself 10/100 GB and the free domain that comes with the package, and then sell the other 9 accounts and a domain name with each for about $80-$100 a year. Sure it requires some work, but $360 a year out of pocket and $720-$900 a year in pocket is a pretty a good deal. Investigate it further here with iPower.

More Free Hosting Options

Sign up for a free Dropbox and read this Lifehacker article for a hack on how to make it a web server. Download a free web template and modify it adding your photos and content. Upload to Dropbox and you're golden.

If you need something up quick and temporary, serve it up yourself using the Opera web browser. Opera is a fantastic browser, but it also has the capacity to act as a server and host files on your hard drive. This isn't really the best option for a permanent web site, but could be useful to you.

Site Design

Don't pay for a web designer. There are literally thousands of free web templates available on the web. Download a template you like, add your photos, logo, graphics and content. Upload it to wherever you are hosting your web site and you're set. Vist my Free Web Templates page. I offer a few of my own templates plus many more from other designers.

Bottom Line

If you are absolutely strapped for cash and you need a professional web site, the first thing to do is barter with me. Maybe you have skills, services or other items I want. I'm willing to do a cashless transaction. However, if you just have to do it yourself, personally I would use a WordPress or Blogger site with a template and spend the $15 for a domain name. Google for tutorials on using either platform and go for it.